


only fools

by talesofsuspenses



Category: Marvel
Genre: April Fools' Day, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Light Angst, M/M, Steve Rogers Feels, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 16:09:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18318728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofsuspenses/pseuds/talesofsuspenses
Summary: Foolproof April Fools' plan:Ask out your crush, if they reject you, call April Fools'!In which Steve and Tony have been crushing on each other way too long and maybe the plan isn't foolproof, but they get together in the end anyway.





	only fools

**Author's Note:**

> happy (lateish) April Fools'!

“Today’s the best day to ask someone out, ‘cause if they say no, then you can just call April Fools’!” Clint says, as wisely as he can, tapping his forefinger to his temple. He’s draped over the back of a couch, facing up at the ceiling, in what they’ve determined as the communal living room (Tony’s).

In the three years they’ve officially been Avengers, none of them had been at the tower for an April Fools’ until today, and Steve is slightly apprehensive, however, he trusts them not to do anything particularly dickish.

In the three years that they’ve been teammates, somewhere along the line, Steve has also developed somewhat of a crush on Tony. Sometime amongst the seemingly endless long line of sleepless nights, back-to-back-to-back missions, movie nights and pseudo-dates, sometime, somewhere, someplace, Steve has fallen in love with his best friend.

And he’s absolutely fine admiring from afar and hoping that Tony doesn’t pick up how fast his heart beats when he leans on his head on him during movie nights or how, on meeting days, when he’s dressed up in a full suit Steve stutters his words around him because, of course he looks gorgeous in whatever he wears, everything from greasy AC/DC t-shirts that have long seen better days to his Iron Man suit, but there’s just something about him in a proper suit, jacket and shirt perfectly tailored to his broad shoulders, trousers hugging his ass and thighs, just on this side of professional, all the way down to his tasteful Italian loafers, something about how perfectly put together he is, how he exudes power and confidence, that makes Steve want to mess him up, run his hands through his gelled-back hair, until none of the strands fall where they’re meant to, tug on his tie and mess with his shirt.

But all of that goes on the backburner for now, _forever_ , not even on the backburner, straight back into the pantry, never to be seen again, because Tony does not, never has and never will feel the same. 

How does he know? Recently-ish, he’s always caught Tony avoiding eye-contact with him.

Tasha had said that his crush could be seen from the ISS.

Sometimes he’ll be doing something, painting or reading the paper or a book or something, and then he’ll look up, or look behind him, to see Tony very obviously Not Looking at him.  
Hell, one time he’d come back from a particularly gruelling run - he’d run almost twice as long as he would have and on the hottest day of the year - sweaty to the point that his shirt was pretty much see-through, not exactly appealing, he got that, but when he’d gone into the kitchen and found Tony in there, Tony had looked at him for a couple seconds and then booked it out of there.

And _God_ does that make Steve feel guilty, he’s managed to make Tony uncomfortable in his own home, if he can’t get his little crush in check - because obviously that’s why Tony keeps avoiding him lately, he’ll act normally (or as normally as Tony Stark’ll act) with Steve, completely disregarding any rules about ‘personal space’ and then suddenly he’ll straighten up or back away and put at least 5 feet between them and avoid his eyes - if he can’t get his feelings in check and stop making Tony uncomfortable then his only choice is to move to DC. 

The worst part of it is Tony, Tony’s the reason he’s better than he was two years ago, he’d done so, so much for him, more than SHIELD, he’s the one who’d noticed how he’d been and had helped him, introduced him to therapy, gave him a home when he had no-one.  
And what had Steve done? Fallen in love with him.

Of course, Steve’ll miss him, but Tony will probably be glad to get rid of him anyway. 

“-eve, you still with us?” Tony asks, concerned, throwing popcorn at him from the other end of the room.

Steve mentally shakes himself and then forces an easy grin on his face, “Yup, just zoned out for a moment, don’t worry.”

“If you say so, big guy,” Tony says, uncertainly, “anyway, pranks, anyone up for anything?” He looks at everyone, after he runs a hand through freshly-washed dark curls that Steve-- _nope_. 

“It’s past noon, doesn’t count anymore,” Nat says, shrugging.

Steve gets up and finishes the last of his orange juice, “I’m gonna, uh, go, up.”

Tony rolls his eyes at Nat and waves bye at Steve, who gives one of his horribly fake smiles again, ones that look like it physically _pains_ him to make - and that’s saying a lot, he’d once witnessed the man try and succeed in hiding three broken ribs. 

Steve, Steve was a ridiculous man that, in Tony’s very correct (and yes he will fight every single person who disagrees) opinion, deserves the entire world and some more.  
Yeah, Tony’s a genius, but he can’t quite wrap his mind around the fact that a person like Steve actually exists in real life - he’s as selfless and self-sacrificial as the stories say but he’s so, so much more than the shield, under the cowl and the legends there’s an actual, _human_ person, and as someone, who, after New York, is a very avid campaigner for a good mental health (if 90’s Tony could see him now…), he’s ashamed for how long it took for him to realise that. 

But the second it clicked, it was like he couldn’t notice anything else, the way the sun shone off his hair early in the morning that made it look like it was spun from gold, how during missions he transformed into almost another person entirely, like Steve Rogers had been shoved down for Captain America, but after he drops, feeling all the consequences of Captain America, how he’s a literal Adonis, but he also had a plethora of problems that SHIELD simply hadn’t noticed - or bothered to, until Tony brought it up, once after he’d witnessed Steve have a panic attack _whilst fighting Doom_ and then refuse to acknowledge that it even happened.

He’s so, so young, to see him act like he had nothing aside from the fight, to see him so jaded already, to see him throw himself into battle without a second thought, he knew that was half the legend, but he also knew exactly what he was doing. Because he’s been there.  
And he refused to watch another person go through what he did knowing that he could help. So he did.

Which left him here, a small, slight inability to talk to one of his best friends because he was so very hot and so very _good_.

Sometimes he’d watch him paint and just get struck by him all over again, he made art with a single-minded focus, pouring creativity and thought into each brushstroke, and every single penny he made from his art went straight to charity, he didn’t take any to pay for the materials or for himself, all of it went straight to a myriad of foundations, because he was just that kind of person, too good for the world, and definitely too good for Tony Stark. 

Which is why he’d avoid looking at him if he caught him watching, yeah, he loves him, god, he adores him, but he’d never, not in a million years ever love Tony back, and the very last thing he wants to do is drive him out of the Tower, especially when Steve’d told him, drunk on Thor’s magic stuff that Tony’s vowed to never touch for as long as he lives, that the Tower was his home in the new century, that it was pretty much the only place he really felt safe and comfortable, the place where he felt the least like he had to live up to a legend.

Tony’s not going to be That Dick.

“Well,” he says, just as Steve leaves the room, watching him go, still half in ear-shot, “it still counts to me.” Exactly nobody believes him.

“You should ask him out,” Clint says after a moment, “perfect day after all.”

“He’s not gonna say yes,” Tony says, shaking his bowl and picking out any last properly popped kernels.

Bruce rolls his eyes, “Tony, seriously, he will.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what I’m scared of,” he mumbles, not meeting any of their eyes, because Steve was good, the best type of good, the most kindhearted, pure person he’s ever had the honour of meeting, and Tony’s none of that.

“Tony,” Bruce says softly, looking at him until he meets his eyes.

They look at each other for a moment and then Tony sighs and says, “Yeah, I know,” he pulls his wits together and then gets up, “birdbrain, we’re going with your plan.” Once again, exactly nobody believes him, Tony Stark was not a coward.

He asks JARVIS where Steve is and gets directed to the roof, he glances at his watch and isn’t surprised, Steve loves golden hour.  
“Hey,” he calls out, when he reaches the roof, to Steve who has his back turned, facing the city, he has a cigarette in his hand, smoke curls up into the atmosphere, greying out where the clouds are orange and pink, Tony has a strict no-smoking policy in the tower, but he’s fine with the roof - especially for Steve, he also has an easel with a rough sketch on it in front of him.  
Steve puts out the cigarette, releases all the smoke in his lungs and takes a long drink of cola and then turns to face him, a small, but genuine smile on his face. That alone does wonders to Tony’s general spirit. God, he’s whipped.

“Hey,” Steve says, as Tony walks closer to him. He stops about a foot away from him, close enough that he can smell the residual smoke on him and he can count every eyelash surrounding his blue, blue eyes. Maybe closer than a foot.

Steve’s still smiling when he teases, “Came to enjoy the--”

“I’m in love with you,” Tony rushes out in one breath, staring right into Steve’s eyes.

Steve immediately shuts down and turns away from him, “That’s not, that’s not funny Tony,” he whispers, sounding broken, “I, I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable with my feelings and I’ll--”

 _His feelings_. 

“Steve,” Tony gently takes his elbow and spins him around to face him. He still won’t look him in the eyes, seemingly finding the cement very interesting.

“Steve, I’m serious.”

That gets him to look up, still guarded, a little, _scared_.

“Tony, if you're- are you- if it’s an April Fools’ Tony--” he almost pleads.

“It’s not, baby, Steve, I’m in love with you, I swear on your life, God knows it’s more important than mine, I’m serious,” Tony says, determined to fully settle the idea in Steve’s mind, that he, Anthony E Stark is head-over-heels for him.

“Really,” Steve asks, still disbelieving, because, surely, it can’t be real, but Tony’s not that kind of guy.

Tony nods and slides his hands up to settle on Steve’s shoulders.

Steve rests his hands on Tony’s waist, fitting along his curves perfectly, “Can I kiss you?” He whispers, leaning down, their faces inches apart.

Tony nods again and leans up to close the gap, touching his lips to Steve’s ridiculously soft ones. The entire world falls away as he feels solely his lips on his, New York could look more as beautiful as it’s ever been and Tony wouldn’t care, because Steve’s surrounding him and he tastes of cola and faintly of smoke and he smells like Steve, like _home_ and he never wants to leave.

Eventually, they have to come up for air, because Tony’s only human.

“I love you too,” Steve murmurs, grinning brighter than he’s seen him all week. Tony makes it his mission statement to change that.

Tony leans in to kiss Steve again, because he can now, he’s allowed to do that, and that in itself makes him giddy in a way he hasn’t felt since his teenage years.

Steve’s smiling bright, bright enough to make up for the setting sun, as he kisses Tony, “Best April Fools’ ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! tell me what you thought in the comments below!  
> [tumblr](https://nohalfway.tumblr.com)  
> [rebloggable tumblr post of this fic](https://nohalfway.tumblr.com/post/183875796656/only-fools)


End file.
